Remember when square enix said they had almost another whole games worth of content that didnt make it into ff13? Everyone thought they would use that as DLC. Instead they will use that content to make a bunch of money off a sequel to the most terrible FF I have ever played.

While the game had its awful points, I still liked it. It had good graphics and I enjoyed the battle system enough to eventually get the platinum trophy. So it wasn't really a terrible game IMO. They just could have done so much more with the game's potential.

I believed the game would be as great as the previous games. With great exploration and an open world like FF12 and the storytelling of other FF games, like FF6, FF9, FF10, etc. Except with an improved battle system and prettier graphics.

BUT all we got was pretty graphics and a butchered stat system. Scratch that. Butchered game.

There are a lot of small things I appreciate about Final Fantasy XIII namely, restarting a boss battle directly much like Kingdom Hearts. It was always such a hassle whenever I was sent back to my last save game, especially in an area that was scarce in Save points and my health was near depleted.

While the Experiment was a bit of a failure, some aspects of it weren't entirely unsuccessful

i thought some things they did were retarded though, like some boss battles it would put you back before to cut scene, some of them have two or 3 seperate sections too, so you had to walk to where the cut scene loaded, then skip all 3 sections of the cut scene before you could try again, i thought that was stupid, plus the game is far far to easy, i just felt like i was going through the motions most of the time... Or just xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx win, yay! Lol.

i've recently rented this game... I've never been a fan of final fantasy or turn based games... My opinion is it started pretty slow and easy, but then as they added more and more things and it became slightly more difficult... The story is ok but way way drawn out with lots of silly dialog that just wasn't needed, i even cringed sometimes lol... The graphics on the ps3 were ace, with some pretty good dramatic cut scenes... I've gotten to the part where it opens up to more open world and i've now kinda lost interest, i don't know what it is, just seems like a crap environment with loads of creatures (too many) kinda looks like pokemon or something! Wasn't for me really. But i was kinda surprised i got that far before giving up. I thought the first half was ok. The rest i can't be bothered to play lol.

There's nothing wrong with liking, or not liking it actually, but to say it was a success when there was so much complaint about it, ignoring that it was the lowest selling title in the franchise despite being multiplatform when others sold better on one, is something else entirely.

ff9 & 12 both sold under 6 million while 13 is already over 6 million and still selling a bit

its definitely a success, it made lots of money. i also liked it and i thought the battle system was nice, but i didnt like the leveling system :( and i could have gone with more gran pulse type places rather than the corridors

Dude, my comment was in regards to quality as well as sales. Talking only of quality, especially in comparison to past games in the series, FFXIII was an utter flop. Failed to get the majority who played it involved in its story. Lacked towns, mini-games and even an overworld.

When you look at how JP gamers were returning their copies to stores within a week, if XIII had been a better game such wouldn't have happened.

final fantasys have always been linear the only difference is you didnt have to waste time in pointless towns, you still had side missions you still have the char dev that final fantasy is really about and you still have to grind like no one's business

just cause they did something different doesn't mean its bad it means people can't accept change which is a true thing

i've never even played a final fantasy game before, well not that i can remember anyway... And i thought it was pretty crap, so your argument really doesn't stand up im afraid... I couldn't even be bothered to finish it.

Same here. I actually just beat the story a few days ago. I do understand some of the complaints though. My only gripe would be that it wasn't as open as previous FF's, but I do know 13 was linear to help push the story along quicker.

Second, you quite correctly pointed out that the first hour of that game, in which you have only played the tutorial stage, and possibly finished the first area (unlikely), is superior to the entirety of FFXIII. Even the fact that the only thing you have done is some moderate hack and slashing, minimal spell casting (depending on your class), and extensive exploring in a non-linear area; that amount of activity is already more than half of what you do in FFXIII, and you just started playing Demon's Souls.

At first I thought the battle system was a breath of fresh air but after playing through the game I realize that it was really shallow. When first seeing screens of the battle system I thought and hoped that it would resemble Xenogears' battle system but it was ill-conceived. Auto battle really should've never been in the game and they should've slowed down the pace of the battles so there could at least be some strategy involved.

For those that keep saying "FFXIII sell 6m copies how is a failure blah-blah.." I have to say first don't compare FFXIII with the previous FF because all the previous ones was exclusives where this one is mp also all the previous FF sell more while they were exclusives to one console & second the basic reason FF sell so well it's very simple because of the name FF and the countless blind fan boys who go and buy it 1st day without even read a review or w8 to see what other ppl who play it first have to say. But even those blind fan boys understand very well how big the mistake was and from now I am sure they wont rush like sheep the next time a new FF from SE make it's appearance on a store near them, be afraid of the talentless ppl SE employ to close the holes from all the talented ones who left, those ppl must be fired along with Wada as long SE keep them and entrust to them future FF's we r going to see more & more failures.

i just want to make note that despite ff13 being multiplatform, it still has a substantially smaller potential user base than other final fantasies released (which it outsold).

when ff12 was released it had a potential user base of about 130 million ps2 owners, when ff13 released it had a potential userbase of a about 90 million ps3/x360 owners. since going multiplatform is only a way to create a higher potential userbase, if anything, the userbase numbers are in favor of ff13 being more of a success than a failure.

so even with a userbase of about 40 million less it still managed to sell more than another ff title (by about half a million)

i totally understand that you didnt enjoy ff13, but to SE, it was a success, despite the criticism they received they still made a lot of money. now if you want to go person to person views of failure than it can be viewed as a failure, but also as a success as not everyone has the same opinion. probably more as a success though. the ps3 metacritic (ps3 sold 72% more copies than x360 so i go by ps3 scores) score (by users) is at an 8.4

Personally, I hated FF13. Didn't even complete it because the battle system was so basic it turned into press X to continue, less we forget how limited the Paradigm system was compared to the (brilliant) gambit system of FF12.

However, you can not call it a bad game on gameplay alone. The graphic where stunning, the fact they made the cut scenes look the same as the in game footage with both of them looking better than Advent Children is a feat unto itself. The story, while not on par with usual FFs, did have its moments and some of the characters where likeable (what's not to like about an afro with a chocobo in it).

The fact that FF13 has sold 6.30 million copies and has a metacritic of 83 does, I'm afraid, make it a success albeit a begrudging success but still a success.

its somewhat foolish to outright deny FFXIII as in some respects being worthy of the FF title. I would agree its one of the weakest entries, yet, i would also argue it had one of the best battle system in any FF. The paradigms, use of demon things, and crystallium charts all made it a very in depth game if not a good narrative one. Some of the bosses required a very complex strat to beat. Today the gambit system isnt quite as innovative as it was in 06, nearly every single rpg with party system has some sort of 'gambit' tactics for party members.

I liked the FF13 battle system. But here is the real reasons why it is not a successful FF game:

- The story is very shallow and weak compared to previous FF titles. - After about four hours of playing, the characters don't really get any further development. Actually, some of them get very annoying (Vanille and Hope). - No sense of exploration or exciting side quests. You do not find ancient villages or interesting places aside from the ones in the main plot and the side quests are all about "go to place X and kill that monster". There are no cities to explore and interact with its society aside from one certain chapter. - Very, very linear. - I think 95% of the game time, you are just fighting monsters. 0.5% exploring a very linear city and 4.5% are cutscenes. Thats not how Role-Playing-Game work! and lets not forget, the play time duration is pretty long (I personally finished it in about 70 hours)

So the only things I personally liked are the graphics and the battle system. I liked how I can "outsmart" a difficult boss if I used a certain strategy without the need to go and waste 5 hours of level grinding. But you do not play an RPG just for its battle system!

I love the Final Fantasy series. With that said, Final Fantasy XIII flat out sucked. There were a few interesting aspects to the game, but nothing that made it "successful" in my opinion. I think it was a big step backwards for the series.

But it really isnt a bad game it just isnt on the same level as past final fantasys. I had a ton of fun with it even though the game was super linear until the end.

I think that the game was linear so people wouldnt have to switch disks like crazy. Because all the openworld content is in the last one. Plus as they stated they removed a full games worth of content and i believe that was due to them not being able to fit it in 3 dvds. I mean i can understand maybe removing a mission or 2 but a whole games worth of content? Thats the only way to explain it.

Anyways people know that i was talking about the 360 version (I played both) and this is just a theory that i have which cant be proven because i know that devs said they made it linear on purpose but i believe they said that to not hurt sales of the game.

I really hope that wasn't Square's reason for cutting content. I really do. Because I don't think any 360 gamers would have cared about changing discs if it meant fans would end up with a better, larger, less-linear game.

Heck, all of us had to change discs in the FFVII-FFIX era, and did anyone care then? Nope. Because the games were so good, we couldn't wait to get to the next disc!

I didn't mind the battle system. But I definitely prefer the older FF games' battle systems. Sure, they were slower and perhaps a little outdated, but they relied on a lot more interaction for the player. In FFXIII you only needed to control the paradigms, but controlling the attacks and spells wasn't necessary (and that's where a lot of the interaction comes from). Being able to control every action your characters do makes you feel in control of the them and in control of winning the battle. But when a game automatically chooses the best attacks for you, then why bother doing it yourself? Sure, you don't HAVE to choose the Autobattle option, but then why have the option at all? It doesn't add anything to the battle system. It just makes gamers lazy.

Another problem I had was that most of the attacks and spells didn't look all that interesting. They all had the same generic bright pink/blue/green/whatever light and that was it. Fire looked like Water, and so on. There wasn't a spectacular special effect for fire, the water didn't bubble up around enemies, quake attacks didn't ripple through the ground, and lightning didn't strike down from the sky. It was all so...generic looking.

The Battle system was the worst and it was the thing it got praise on a little.

I can't believe people still have faith for FF13-2. This is how Sqaure gets money because they says their going to improve it a little and people assume that there going to improve on everything. Why would they waste their time on this, it's just a cash in targeted at the fans who liked/completed FF13. Which person would buy FF13-2 is they never finished FF13 for what ever reason, you would be lost in the story from thr start and wouldn't be able to enjoy the game.

Well said my thought exactly who is going to buy FF13-2 when so many ppl didn't finish the first because was such a crap game and lost all their interest the first few hours? do u even read about how many ppl all over the world even in JPN sell their copies while they didn't finish it? SE must know if they r not completely brainless that 13-2 is going to sell worse than the first game but they r going to release it anyway and the reason is because they have the extra content ready from all those things they cut from the first so even if it's sell half the sales of the first still they r going to cash in.